496 



THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



clean. As soon as the wheat crop is off, the land should be 

 worked with Ducie's cultivator, but if free from twitchi 

 Bentall's scarifier will do equally as well. Then manure the 

 land as early as possible, or when the carting will do well. 

 Plough the manure in shallow, and follow with a subsoil 

 plough, altogether about 1 4 inches deep. The work should be 



done so as to have the benefit of the winter frosts. Sow on 

 the flat with Garrett's drill 61b3. of seed per acre, to ensure a re- 

 gular plant, and watch the young plants as they come up. If 

 the slug attacks them, sow in the early morning 2 cwt. of salt 

 mixed with 1 cwt. of guano per acre, which will greatly im- 

 prove their growth, — Notts Guardian. 



LONDON, OR CENTRAL FARMERS' CLUB. 



" Another impoitant feature in this Society was the 

 relation which it bote to cottage tenants and cot- 

 tage holders of allotments ; and no society could be 

 more usefully employed than in improving the cultiva- 

 tion of cottage gardens and allotments, for they could 

 not overrate the benefits which it conferred on the 

 working man. Instead of wasting his time, when his 

 day's work was done, at the public-house, or in idle 

 amusement or dissipation, he employed himself in his 

 cottage garden or allotment, whereby he was enabled 

 to pay his rent ; and in that way it was not only the 

 greatest possible benefit to the tenant, but also to the 

 landlord. His agent, Mr. Mcin, to whose talent and 

 enlightened intelligence he bore a willing and heartfelt 

 testimony, fully appreciated this system, and had his 

 full instructions, so lar as he might be able, to carry it 

 out to the greatest possible extent, and in the 

 most practical manner, so as to bo most beneficial to the 

 cottage tenants." 



The above is from the address of a nobleman who 

 stands officially at the head of English agriculture — his 

 Grace the Duke of JMarlborough, the President of the 

 Royal Agricultural Society of England. It was deli- 

 vered by him at a recent meeting in his own county — that 

 of the Chipping Norton Association, Within a few days, 

 all that was advanced here has been very signally sup- 

 ported in another place. The practice of the President 

 of the national Society is confirmed by a general meet- 

 ing of the national Farmers' Club. The benefit which 

 the allotment system confers on the labouring man 

 would appeal', indeed, to have become so manilest as 

 to admit of but little discussion. 



It is remarkable, moreover, to see how thorou^'hly 

 the three classes to which tlic poor man must look 

 agree on this point, A great good is rarely established 

 without the opposition of some conflicthig or petty in- 

 terest. But tlierc is none sucli hero. The Duke of 

 Marlborough says his agent, Mr. Mein, fully ajjpre- 

 ciatcs this system. It was Mr. Trethcwy, the agent of 

 another large landed proprietor, the Earl do Grey, 

 who brought the subject before the members of the 

 Farmers' Club. And when, this summer, as a 

 kind of ))rologuc to the meeting in town, wo spent that 

 pleasant day at Silsoe, the representative of another 

 nobleman, famed for his broad acres and their good 

 management, met us there, prepared to su])portall his 

 neighbour could i-ay or show us. This was Mr. fionnett, 

 the well-known agent of the Duke of Bedford. We 

 stand, then, at once secure of Blenheim, Woburn, and 

 Wrest— three of the great Houses of England ; show- 

 places that people travel their hundreds and thousands 



of miles to see, and that are great not only in pictures 

 and the picturesque — in horses and hounds — in ances- 

 try and hospitality — but in a peasantry worthy of the 

 scene. Where every man may now have his rood of 

 ground, although without attempting the impossibilities 

 with it poor Goldsmith sung in those sweet-flowing, 

 mischief-making lines of his. 



It is by no means going too far to distinguish the 

 last Farmers' Club discussion as the best of the 

 year; and this despite the prevailing unanimity of 

 opinion and the exhaustive force of the oi^ening paper. 

 There was, indeed, scarcely a material point but which 

 Mr. Trethewy touched on, and as rarely but that the 

 meeting endor.-ed his opinion. The first great preju- 

 dice, that when a man has done a good day's work for 

 his master he should neither have the time nor the 

 heart to do anything for himself, is palpably worn out. 

 In fact it is not now a question whether a labourer 

 should have the chance of cultivating a bit of land or 

 not, but rather how much he should have, where he 

 shoulel have it, and at what rate he should have it. It 

 is over these points that the nice discretion must 

 be exercised, so that his strength bo not in any 

 way over-marked. He must not have too much 

 land for his leisure ; it must not be too far 

 from his labour ; and it must not be too high for 

 his means. Let us keep to the poet's rood of ground, 

 and at not more than half-a-raile or so from his cot- 

 tage. At the first blush it would strike one as especially 

 desirable that, wherever it is practicable, the allotment 

 should be nothing more nor less than a garden round 

 about the labourer's dwelling. Nothing would pro- 

 mise to attract him more towards home, or keep him 

 better employed when he got there. Every idle five 

 minutes might bo spent in the garden; whereas, more 

 particularly in the short winter days, the time con- 

 sumed in reaching the allotment might hardly warrant 

 his going at all. Mr. Trethewy's experience, however, 

 tends to show that one great advantage of the allotment 

 system is that it creates a spirit of emulation amongst 

 the holders. Laid strip by strip, and side by side, it 

 becomes a point of honour amongst them who shall do 

 his "piece" the best. And we can really, with- 

 out mucli stretch of the imagination, suppose 

 that many a man who would be but a slovenly cottage 

 gardener might turn out a very good allotment culti- 

 vator. This, though, only the further pro\es of how 

 much benefit the much-derided prize system is sus- 

 ceptible. Still, we cannot see that it is altogether 

 inapplicable to the improvement of the cottage garden. 

 In travelling this summer by the railway between £dia> 



